Benedictus de Castro

Benedictus de Castro
Bornc. 1597 – January 31, 1684
Hamburg, Holy Roman Empire
DiedJanuary 31, 1684 (aged c. 87)
Hamburg, Holy Roman Empire
Resting place
Jewish Cemetery of Altona [de]
OccupationsAuthor, physician
Years active1621–1678
SpouseJael
FatherRodrigo de Castro [de]

Benedictus de Castro (also Benedito de Castro and Baruch Nehemias; born c. 1597 – January 31, 1684) was a physician, author, and Jewish community leader in Hamburg.

Early life

De Castro was born in the late 1590s to Rodrigo de Castro [de], a physician, author, and a Portuguese Jewish emigrant to Hamburg who had fled in the late 16th century. In 1621, he graduated from the University of Leiden with a degree in medicine. His dissertation is considered lost. He additionally studied medicine at the University of Franeker and received a doctorate on September 3, 1624. He practiced medicine in Hamburg, and was described in his craft by Hugo Grotius as "vir humanissimus".

Career

De Castro quickly became a well-respected doctor in his community. In 1645, he treated Christina, Queen of Sweden and was invited to stay in the royal palace. He is the first Jew known by name to have entered the Kingdom of Sweden. His 1647 book, Monomachia, was dedicated to her. Despite his overall success, he was attached by Christian doctors and Lutheran clergymen, among them Joachim Curtius (1585–1642). In 1631, Abraham Zacutus Lusitanus, another well-known physician, encouraged de Castro to take public action against such attacks. That year, de Castro wrote Flagellum calumniatium seu Apologia under the pseudonym Philotheo Castello. In the pamphlet, he criticized the "lies and slander" by Christian phyisicans against colleagues of Portuguese-Jewish descent where "the malicious charges against an anonymous author are refuted." In the writing, he additionally countered with many examples of the achievements of Jewish physicians in the field. It is often considered a supplement to the book Medicus Politicus, which was authored by his father, whom with he shared the ideal that doctors had a duty to heal the human soul and body so that they would be able to reflect the divine harmony of the universe as harmony among society.

In 1652, he was one of the founders of the Portuguese-Jewish community "Beth Israel", of which he was a board member from 1654 onwards, and during which he took many honorary positions. He threatened that the community would withdraw from Hamburg if they were prevented from free practice of their religion and from full schooling. In 1666, he endorsed Sabbatai Zevi. In 1678, David de Pina dedicated his thesis, De Pleuritide, to de Castro.

Personal life

Due to economic struggle, he had to sell his personal library in his final years. He died in 1684 and is buried in the Jewish Cemetery of Altona [de]. He was married to a woman named Jael.

Works

References

  1. ↑ The Jewish Encyclopedia: A Descriptive Record of the History, Religion, Literature, and Customs of the Jewish People from the Earliest Times to the Present Day. Funk and Wagnalls. 1912. p. 56.
  2. ↑ Reichman, Rabbi Edward (2022-08-01). "A 'Haro'ing Tale of a Jewish Medical Student: Notes on David de Haro (1611-1636) – The First Jewish Medical Graduate of the University of Leiden". Studia Rosenthaliana. 48 (1): 30–52. doi:10.5117/SR2022.1.002.REIC. ISSN 1781-7838.
  3. ↑ Adler, Cyrus; Schechter, Solomon; Neuman, Abraham Aaron; Zeitlin, Solomon (1941). The Jewish Quarterly Review. Dropsie College for Hebrew and Cognate Learning. p. 412.
  4. ↑ Gordon, Benjamin Lee (1959). Medieval and Renaissance Medicine. Philosophical Library. p. 762. ISBN 978-0-8022-0609-1. {{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
  5. 1 2 Wendehorst, Stephan (2004-10-01). The Roman Inquisition, the Index and the Jews: Contexts, Sources and Perspectives. BRILL. p. 116. ISBN 978-90-474-0622-8.
  6. ↑ Kayserling, Meyer (1877). "The" Life and Labours of Manasseh Ben Israel: Being a Contribution to the History of the Jews in England, from Original Sources. Wertheimer, Lea and Company. p. 80.
  7. ↑ Kopitzsch, Franklin; Brietzke, Dirk; Universität Hamburg, eds. (2001). Hamburgische Biografie: Personenlexikon. Hamburg: Christians. pp. 70–71. ISBN 978-3-7672-1364-7.
  8. ↑ Valentin, Hugo (1950-11-28). "The History of Jews in Sweden". Judisk Krönika. p. 17. Retrieved 2026-04-08.
  9. ↑ "'J'accuse 2.0'". nordstjernan.com. June 2010. Retrieved 2026-04-08.
  10. 1 2 Cáceres, Paula (2015). Jewish Identities and their Co-constructors: A Qualitative Study of the Social Constructions of Jewish Identities in Sweden. Gothenburg: University of Gothenburg. p. 7.
  11. ↑ Varady, Aharon N. (2025-06-05). "Prayer upon the completion of a tome of medical knowledge, by Dr. Abraham Zacuto IV (1642)". OpenSiddur. Retrieved 2026-04-08.
  12. ↑ Pagel, Walter (1967). William Harvey's Biological Ideas: Selected Aspects and Historical Background. Karger Medical and Scientific Publishers. p. 94. ISBN 978-3-8055-0962-6.
  13. ↑ Singer, Isidore (1904). The Jewish Encyclopedia: God-Istria. Funk & Wagnalls Company. p. 191.
  14. ↑ Lyman, Darryl (1997). Great Jewish Families. Jonathan David Publishers. p. 372. ISBN 978-0-8246-0400-4.
  15. 1 2 Kaplan, Yosef (2021-11-29). An Alternative Path to Modernity: The Sephardi Diaspora in Western Europe. BRILL. p. 207. ISBN 978-90-04-50094-5.
  16. ↑ "Benedito de Castro". entities.oclc.org. Retrieved 2026-04-08.